Waiting Between Worlds
by Lindsey Dive
Summary: In the midst of a new life away from home, "Golden Retriever" Mike Newton discovers he has a closer relationship to the canine species than anticipated when imprinted on by both Leah and Seth Clearwater. [Post Breaking Dawn. MikexLeah, MikexSeth.]


**Waiting Between Worlds  
**_By Lindsey Dive_

Can you hear it?  
The soft beats, the low thrum.

Can't you hear it?  
Hold your hand out, press it close.

_Listen_.

* * *

I could hear her screams.

They were sharp and clear, each one echoing over me, around me, through me. The brief pauses of silence gave way to more heart wrenching cries, and I had to keep reminding myself silently, in mantra, _keep going, keep going, don't stop_.

"Mike!"

Her voice was far away yet close. Terrifyingly close. It tuned in and out like a bad radio station, as if my head was fumbling between static, trying to get a clear signal and failing. It made me nauseous - an_ I'm-going-vomit_ sick to my stomach nauseous. Her voice cluttered every inch inside my head, pinging around like a blitzed pinball, never-ending with no clear sign of whether I was winning or losing. But this wasn't a game. This was life or death.

"S-stop! _Please_." Harsh panting hung in the air, dizzyingly nearby. I pushed myself harder, heart pounding unforgivingly in my chest. It was hard ignoring the urge to turn and look back at her; it was hard ignoring the want to stop running away from her, and to her. Hard but doable. Trying to run away from Leah was like trying to outrun an addiction: nearly impossible, but a possibility. The itching need to be near her was unrelenting, even through the fear.

"I can explain!"

Birds scattered as if a gun had been fired, billowing out of drooping pine boughs, leaving shaking limbs and thistles in their wake. Distantly I thought I might have heard other animals spook – perhaps a deer herd - but I wasn't sure. My radio-esque ears were fucked in their pickup, just like everything else in my body. My sight. My scent.

My sense of awareness.

I didn't realize until moments later that I couldn't hear her anymore, but I didn't trust my judgment enough to stop. _What if I was blacking out again_? Or perhaps, maybe, I was about to wake up and this would be nothing but another dream-turned nightmare, and I'd be in my studio apartment with the smell of cheap-o ramen hugging the air like sea salt. The water faucet in the bathroom would be dripping away, annoying me _drip_ by _drip_ until I gave up on trying to fall back asleep, got up cursing, and readied myself for work. _God what I'd give for that._

I blinked my eyes hopefully.

_Nothing._

I pinched myself – and winced when pain sprouted along my arm.

_Nothing._

Even as the teasing taste of silence began to flood the forest around me, I wasn't alluded into thinking it was over. I'd imagined and been hoping for this moment for the last ten minutes – or had it been twenty? I didn't know anymore – but I knew just how quickly that could change. How quickly _I_ could change. It'd be as simple and fast as daring a cliff dive: one moment on the edge, the next, plunging deep into the dark depths of the frigid pacific waters.

The deer herd I thought I'd heard before was close by again. Distantly, the click-clacking of hooves scraping against rocky grounds distracted me, but only for a few seconds. I barely noticed anything else that was going on around me, too caught up in the here-and-now of where I was going, why, and how much longer…

_How much longer I'd be able to take this._

My feet hurt, and each second spent pounding them barefoot against the forest floor sent slivers of pain up my soles and legs. Loose brushwood and unkempt trails had jabbed slivers into my skin, and in the darkness I only noticed the rocks after they'd scraped me. The rush of my heartbeat was the only consolation I had at this point. The beating kept me sane, made me feel more human.

Made me sure I was still alive.

Thump_ thump._

Thump_ thump_.

A twig snapped.

Thump_ thump._

Thump_ thump._

Harsh pants filled the night air – but were they mine, or hers? The rush of my heartbeat managed to drown out most of my paranoia and wonder, but some of my thoughts persisted, eating away through the heavy weight of fear and anxiety clouding me: was I imagining everything? Had I finally crossed over the deep end? – or was it all true and what I'd just witnessed – something unbelievable, incredible, and completely terrifying – _real_?

Was Leah a werewolf?

A sound so clear, nearly _tangible_ with its emotion that I could almost _feel_ the pain and agony that she felt, cut through me. The howl split through my thoughts and heart in a perfect dive, effectively shutting my brain down and injecting me with adrenaline and fear straight into my veins. It was a paralyzing poison, starting deep inside, biting and nipping at both my heart and soul until they bled.

_Keep going. Keep going. Don't stop._

The pain in my feet was nothing to me anymore. I could distantly feel warm blood forming in splotches along my toes; the stitch along my side from having run too long and too hard barely registered, even as breathing got harder.

It was the pain in my heart that'd overtaken everything.

After all, the monster following me was nothing compared to the monster it was chasing.

* * *

End Prologue. Chapter 1 coming tomorrow. 

* * *

Hope you enjoyed the teaser. **Please read below.**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight nor any of the books in the respective series. I do own this storyline however, and any new concepts or ideas that were not present in Stephenie Meyer's novels are mine as well.

**Rating:** NC-17+. This story is not for children. If you don't enjoy adult-content material such as offensive language, sexual content and violence, please move on. There will be a lot of suggestive slash undertones as well.

**Pairings:** MikeLeah focus, MikeSeth.

R & R.


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